Memento Mori
by Mission Wing Zero
Summary: Post EW, Duo's being told that Heero's dead, and died prior to Mariemia's uprising. But Duo recalls Heero being there and even now see's Heero. Are the others right and Duo going insane, or is something more happening?
1. Real Gone

Memento Mori 

Summary: After Endless Waltz, everything seems to return to normal quickly. However after an almost seemingly normal encounter with Heero, Duo realizes the harsh truth of the saying 'things are not always as they seem'.

MWZ: Wow what a way to switch torture.

Heero: Yeah usually you're torturing me.

MWZ: I know…. I feel almost bad.

Duo: You know my legions of fan girls will come to get you for this.

MWZ: Aww don't worry Duo-chan, I 3 you too.

Duo: Yeah I'm so sure…

MWZ: Ok Ryuiosuke! Hit the disclaimer!

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. This is reality. They belong to their respective owners in the Sotsu Sunrise agency.

Duo: We don't own ourselves??

Heero: Nope.

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Chapter One: Wake Up

It had been only 3 days since the Mariemia incident. Things had almost gone back to normal in the short time. The occasional news report would provide some "breaking news" now and then, but over all it was a calm day.

Bree! Bree! Bree!

…

Bree! Bree! Bree!

…

And the silence had been shattered. The alarm clock next to bed was going off, and the owner of the clock made no sudden moves to stop it. A hand snuck out from underneath the black blanket and slowly reached the bedside table.

Bree! Bree! Bree!

…

Bree! Bree! Bree!

…

The hand tapped the table gently, feeling it, and almost memorizing and starting to remember the touch and feel of the table. Suddenly, the owner realized where their hand was placed, and quickly hit the button on top of the alarm clock.

"Mmmm morning already?" The raspy morning voice from under the covers asked itself. The blanket clad body slowly sat up, and the covers fell. The occupant opened his violet eyes, slowly scanning the room, the light and colors present confirming his thoughts. His long chestnut bangs were hanging in his face, he brought his hand up to scratch his head. He looked over to the alarm clock where there was a small Post-It note. In feminine handwriting it read "Duo, call me. Hilde"

Duo brought his legs over the bed and stretched. "Well, might as well wake up. Things to do, people to meet, places to go."

Hilde tapped her foot. She had several orders to hand to Duo but once again he had taken his sweet time getting to the yard. She heard the sounds of Duo's car pull up. She watched as Duo got out and walked over to her.

"Heya Hil!" Duo said, waving a hand in the air. Hilde raised her hand.

"Don't 'hey' me Duo Maxwell! You're late again. You know how many of these parts people are wanting?" Duo smiled.

"Hey now, no worries." He grabbed the paper from the clipboard. "I'll look them over as I go meet Heero. The jerk ran into hiding again after the end of the Mariemia incident."

Hilde raised an eyebrow and frowned. "Duo, is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah why wouldn't it be?" Duo looked at her with a smile that agreed with its owner. She opened her mouth to continue. "I'll see ya later Hilde, who knows where he ran off to."

"Duo, Heero is-" Hilde started to say but Duo was already out of an earshot before she could finish.

As Duo drove, he passed a construction site. A tall fence had been erected around the area and a sign had been posted on it stating who now owned the land and who was building. While Duo stopped at a red light, he noticed a name on the sign and smiled.

"So Quatre's down here huh? I'm going to have to pay a visit."

"Take me with you then." A voice said. Duo looked towards his open passenger window and saw a pair of Prussian blue eyes staring back at him.

"Holy shit Heero! What the-" Duo heard a car horn and noticed the light was green. "Shit hurry and get in."

Heero did so by swinging in through the open window and Duo quickly took off, before the other drivers decided to take their frustration out on him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." Heero said in a 'matter of fact' tone.

"Well Jesus, you appear out of nowhere and then you just show up next to my car and ask for a ride." Duo looked at Heero, who seemed to be the same as usual. He was wearing the green tank top, the denim jeans, denim jacket and the damn brown hiking shoes.

"The turns right here." Duo sighed as he listened to his comrade and turned onto the street.

"Of course. I know where I'm going. I do live here after all." Duo said jokingly. He looked at Heero quickly then turned back to the road. "So where are you staying now? It was tricky finding you from the start, and I'm sure you don't stay in one place."

"I've been around. I'm nearby though." Duo noticed Heero was looking around the car, in a similar fashion as a little kid looking at his parents' new car.

"Talk to Relena lately?" Heero instantly stopped poking around the car and looked at Duo.

"No. Why should I?"

Duo laughed to himself a bit. "She likes to hear from you man."

"You did a great job restoring this. It's a 58 right? Where did you even find the parts?" Heero asked. Duo caught onto the subject change and made a mental note of it.

"I work at a scrap yard, you'd be surprised what you can do with the resources." Duo reached another red light and stopped the car and looked at Heero again. Heero was staring at a bottle of soda that was pinched between the passenger seat and the center console. "Man, if you're thirsty, knock yourself out. I don't have cooties."

The light turned green again. Heero was a bit surprised that Duo had caught onto the fact he was thirsty. He grabbed the bottle and noticed the bottle's label had been ripped off. Part of him; the rational part, said don't drink it; but the thirst was too strong. He untwisted the cap and drank its contents. It was surprisingly sweet and really bubbly. He held the bottle away from him and looked at it like it had contained some magic substance. "What is this?"

"Vanilla Coca-Cola."

"It tastes good." Duo laughed.

"Hey I caught onto your little subject change. Why won't you talk to Relena?"

Heero sat the bottle back down and looked straight ahead. "She doesn't need to hear from me. She doesn't need me." Heero said. He noted that the next turn was the parking lot to Quatre's office. Duo turned into the parking lot and pulled into an open spot. He put the car in park. He turned opposite from Heero's direction to make sure he wasn't close enough to the car beside him. He didn't want them opening their door and scratching his Mustang.

"And I suppose I do?" Duo heard the sound of a car door closing and quickly looked over to Heero, only to find him gone. "Huh? Hey wait up!"

Duo opened his door, got out and closed it. He turned around and noticed Heero wasn't anywhere in the parking lot. Duo looked around thinking maybe he had become distracted by something and walked off. "Man, he really needs to learn to wait for others." Duo mumbled to himself before running towards the office doors.

Paper after paper. Pile after pile. The repetitive motion of signing and sealing was almost enough to push him back on the ZERO system. Quatre looked over and noticed he still had 2 more piles of paper. He heard a knock from the door. He placed his hand on the paper piles to keep the paper from flying up. "Come in. Hi how can I help you?"

"Damn Quatre, you have enough work?" Quatre looked up to see Duo. He instantly lit up.

"Duo! It's so good to see you! How are you?" Quatre said politely.

"I'm good, I'm good. Noticed your construction site a few blocks north of here, so I figured I'd come by and visit. Speaking of which have you seen Heero?" Duo asked.

"Huh? Heero??" Quatre asked.

"Yeah." Duo looked at Quatre's desk and miraculously found a small hard candy wrapped in bright yellow paper. He grabbed it and motioned to Quatre if it was ok to eat. Quatre, with an odd look on his face, nodded an okay. Duo unwrapped it and popped the candy, hard caramel, into his mouth. "Yeah, he scared the shit out of me. He spotted me on my way here and hitched a ride with me. He disappeared though when we got here. I figured he was already in here, but I 'spose not."

"Duo…you couldn't possibly have given Heero a ride here." Quatre said, placing his hand on Duo's shoulder. Duo seemed to take offense to being called a liar. "Hilde's right you are acting weird."

"Hilde!?" Duo stood up. "When did she say that?!"

"This morning. She called me shortly before you came in. She said you were saying you were going to find Heero."

"And I was, and did in fact. What's so weird about searching out my friend? And what do you mean I couldn't have given Heero a ride?" Duo said angrily.

"Duo, Heero's dead."

-----------------------

Heero: Wow.

Duo: oO You got me straight trippin boo.

MWZ: Yep. So R&R puhleeez! I'll have part 2 out soon promise!!

Ryuoisuke: Now I gotta put another disclaimer thanks to you! You made another movie reference!

Heero: I don't care, I didn't get tortured this time

Duo: I see dead people…

Ryuiosuke: --;;;; puts up another disclaimer

Disclaimer: MWZ also doesn't own "The sixth sense" or " Bringing down the house" movie or its movie references

MWZ: Ok with that out of the way review people!


	2. Photograph

Memento Mori 

Summary: The truth from Quatre isn't what Duo believes is true. A discussion between the two; a refusal. Where is the truth?

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. This is reality. They belong to their respective owners in the Sotsu Sunrise agency.

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Chapter Two: Photograph

"Duo, Heero's dead." Duo heard the words and felt a feeling come over him. He burst into laughter. This was definitely not the response Quatre was expecting from Duo. Duo clutched his stomach as he laughed. He decided to straighten himself seeing as the caramel candy in his mouth threatened to either fall to the floor or choke him if he didn't.

"Quatre, I think I should call Hilde back. You're the crazy one. That's definitely a new one." Duo slowly came to a regular breathing pattern. Quatre rubbed his head.

"Duo, I'm serious. Heero died in explosion. You know that. We were all there." Quatre sighed and turned toward his desk. Duo seemed to realize what the whole problem was and stared at Quatre.

"No wonder you think he's dead. You probably haven't talked to him since the Wing Zero blew up that little mansion hideout of Mariemia's. Heero made it just fine, a bit scratched up but he didn't seem to be hurt at all this morning when I talked to him." Duo explained.

"Duo, Heero wasn't there during the Mariemia incident. He died when he fired the cannon blowing up that last fragment of Libra." Quatre had now taken the position of leaning on his desk with his arms bearing the weight. Duo became more serious.

"Okay Quatre, now you're just taking this whole joke too far. Heero isn't dead. You even talked to him during that whole insanity. You sent out the Wing Zero to some rendezvous point for him to pick up. You were there when Heero and I took that small shuttle to get onto X-18999. Remember?" Duo recounted to Quatre. "I think you need to get out some Quatre, these papers are making you slowly snap. You're over stressed or something."

"Duo, I'm perfectly fine. Even if I were joking, why would I choose this subject as the basis for a joke? That's just sick and inhumane. I know you and Heero were close friends. I would never do something this sickening, I'm telling you the truth Duo, Heero is dead." Quatre turned around and began moving his arms as he spoke. He placed his left hand over his heart as his right arm extended out to his side. "Why would I lie to you?"

Duo sighed and stood up. He had his eyes closed and then opened them. "Quatre, really, I'm worried about you. You know as well as I do that I wouldn't lie to you. Heero was in my car this morning, commenting about it and drinking my bottle of soda. I think you need to take a vacation or something. I'll talk to you later, I'm a just a bit too upset at the moment to have a legitimate conversation." Duo turned and left.

Quatre watched Duo's figure head down the hall as the door slowly closed. The door shut with a slow snap before Duo was fully out of view. Quatre stepped backwards and then seated himself on top of his desk. He turned himself around, carefully dodging the paper stacks, and reached over into his desk drawer. He pulled out a photo. It was a really nice picture and was pinned in a frame.

It was a photo of all five of them when they met aboard the Peacemillion. Noin and Sally decided to take the photos in the case something ever happened. Quatre easily had recalled that exact moment. It was burned into his memory.

"_Hey Heero! Noin and Sally are going to take a picture! Come on!"_

"_I'm busy here, do you mind?"_

The stinging feeling, before tears come, imposed themselves on Quatre.

"_Come on. It's just one picture! It's not like we're gonna give it to Zechs or something. He'd probably use it for target practice."_

"_Oh come on Heero, it'll be nice!"_

"_Quatre, not you too." _

"_Might as well give in Heero, Quatre's pretty stubborn about these things."_

"_Trowa, you're not helping."_

"_Three against one Heero! Now you have to!"_

"_Four against one, get over here Yuy!"_

"_Fine. I was really hoping you'd be on my side WuFei."_

"_Maxwell forced me into the picture as well."_

"_Misery loves company!"_

Quatre remember they had all stood nice and neat for the picture, but Duo decided to tackle Heero from behind.

"_Say cheese!"_

"_Chaah! Duo!!!" _

_Snap_

"_Hahaha!"_

The photo came out better then anyone hoped. Rather then everyone sitting there and just taking a picture, Duo had Heero actually caught in a scowl-like smirk as in the shot Heero was in the midst of pushing Duo off him. Duo was laughing with one eye closed out of reflex as Heero's hand came close to his face. WuFei was backing away, hoping to avoid being caught in Duo's chaos. Quatre was bent over laughing as Trowa laughed as well.

Suddenly a drop of a clear liquid fell onto the picture, enlarging parts of the photo and then rolled down the glass frame. Quatre seemed to snap out of it and recognized his tears falling down. He wiped his tear off of it, and then pushed a stack of papers off of his desk, not caring of the mess they made. He set the picture up where the stack of papers once were, and reclined back in his chair.

Duo got back into his car and shut the door. He felt more troubled then he had before entering Quatre's office. He looked at the seat beside him, hoping to find any trace of the Wing pilot's presence there from before. He slowly inhaled the scents of the car, distinguishing smell from smell. He recognized the scent of the Mustang, noting that he had always smelled it when he first entered the car. He searched internally checking if any foreign scent was present. He recalled that when he once went to the same school as Heero, he noted that Heero had a strange scent of gunpowder and spice. Duo opened his eyes and realized he had grabbed a hold of a tiny bit of that same smell.

"Gunpowder and spice." He said to himself. That was proof; he had been in the car. But what if Duo was just hoping for the smell and so perhaps his brain just imagined the smell?? Duo looked down towards his seat and console and noticed the coke bottle. The bottle was in fact much lower then before Heero had came in the car. Duo nodded and started the car up. He was right.

Heero Yuy had been in that car earlier.

"You need to be a little more scared!" Catherine Bloom stated once again. Trowa looked at her and smiled.

"I don't get paid enough to act scared of you." Catherine mock "huffed" and laughed. She turned away as Trowa sat next to the lion again.

"Trowa, someone is here to see you." The Manager said as he walked into the area of the tent Trowa and Catherine were in. Trowa looked at Catherine, asking silently if she had expected or asked someone to surprised him. She gave him a slight shake of the head. Manager stepped back and Quatre came into view.

"Quatre, what are you doing here?" Trowa greeted. Quatre ran up and bowed in front of Catherine and then turned his attention back to the emerald-eyed boy.

"It's good to see you again Trowa, although this time I wish it was on better terms." Quatre said, looking down now. Trowa stood up and went towards Quatre.

"What's wrong Quatre?"

"Duo. It's Duo. You were right."

A few minutes later found Trowa out of his costume as well as Catherine. Trowa and Quatre sat at a small table while Catherine poured them some tea. She sat the teapot on the table as Quatre nodded and said a low 'thank you.' She stood there and Quatre read her mind without a second thought.

"Of course you can stay, we're all friends here." He stated with a smile. Content, Catherine sat down in a third chair slightly behind Trowa.

"So what's all this about Duo? What's wrong?" Trowa questioned, his emerald eyes flickering with interest.

"Well Hilde called me this morning saying Duo was acting strange and that he was going out to look for Heero." Already Trowa had formulated some questions in his head. "He came over to my office later agreeing with the same story, adding in that Heero had hitched a ride with him just before entering the office. He seems to believe Heero is still alive and amongst us basically."

"I told you we would have to deal with this someday. Duo was very attached to Heero." Trowa laughed a little to himself thinking of how Duo could easily rile the Wing pilot.

"Heaven knows why though." Quatre stated sipping his tea. "Heero was a good guy, don't get me wrong. But they are extreme opposites."

"Duo confided to me once. People he got close to always died."

"Ah I remember now. He told me the same when Heero first self detonated. He said that it had left him emotionally drained." Quatre recalled.

"The way I see it, when Duo realized Heero survived that, I guess he figured Heero could survive anything. Perhaps now he refuses to accept Heero's death." Quatre listened intently to Trowa's words. Catherine sat and listened, not saying a word, but her eyes told that she was thinking of something to say.

"Why don't you show him proof of his death? Take him to Heero's grave perhaps." She said.

"We just might have to. It's on L1 near the old military base." Catherine looked at Quatre oddly.

"Why there of all places?" Trowa turned to face her.

"We didn't necessarily have anything to bury for him, all we could find after the explosion was a fragment of Wing Zero's chest gem. We placed that there because Quatre said something had once happened there and Heero said if anything were to happen to him, that's where he would want to be buried." Trowa said. The information seemed to be a bit more then Catherine had anticipated.

"Heero never told me why." Quatre said. "But how is that even proof enough to Duo that he's dead? Our Gundams are blown up and we're still alive, that could easily be his argument."

"Wait right here, you just reminded me of something!" Catherine said jumping to her feet and running to a back room. Quatre looked at Trowa, who was looking in the direction his sister had ran. The sounds of things being shuffled around and knocked over were heard along with a few curses. A few minutes later Catherine came back into view with 2 neatly folded papers in her hands. She placed them on the table.

"After your friend self-detonated, when I went to wash his clothes I found these papers in his pockets." Catherine realized what she said and Trowa smirked at her. She placed her hands on her hips. "I only did in case he had stuff in his pockets before I placed them to be washed!"

"If you say so." Trowa mocked as Catherine sat back down a picture of a little girl, no more then 8 or 9 years old judging by the picture. The words had been rubbed off just by wear making it harder to read. The other paper was a part of a newspaper story ripped out of the page.

"Explosion at military base leads to one hundred five dead and fifty others wounded. Arsonist said to be part of colony rebel group." Trowa continued to read.

"Heero." Trowa stopped reading and looked at Quatre.

"I think we now know why Heero wanted to be buried there." Trowa answered to the unspoken question.

"Instead of finding answers we're finding more questions." Quatre said in a tired but amused sort of voice. Heero had always been very secretive about his life, especially the past. "Who is this little girl? What happened that night, I'm sure it haunted Heero so what was it? And why is Duo saying he can see him?"

"Quatre slow down. Although it is very inquisitive, I doubt bringing up Heero's past is going to convince Duo that Heero is dead. Let's focus on getting Duo back to his normal self first." Trowa said, Quatre nodded, agreeing the same.

"Maybe the Preventors still have footage from the last fight, it'll be hard to watch again, but it might be what we have to do."

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MWZ: Wow this is even getting me excited.

Heero: But you know how it's going to end.

MWZ: Well yes but seeing it on paper is soooo sexy.

Heero: Gods you need help.

MWZ: Anyways sorry for taking so long getting this out school's a bitch.

Heero: You're supposed to say that before the story.

MWZ: Shut up! Shouldn't Duo be distracting you somewhere?

Heero: Eh he's around somewhere.

MWZ: Good gravy we better go find him Anyways read & review people! Yay!


	3. Proof of Existence

Memento Mori 

Summary: Confirmed in each of their beliefs, Quatre & Duo take separate paths to find a way to prove the other wrong. With many unanswered questions, and only one person knowing the answer. Now begins the scramble for the proof of who's right.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. This is reality. They belong to their respective owners in the Sotsu Sunrise agency.

MWZ: (sleepy) Oh my God Ryu, why am I up at this ungodly hour?

Ryuiosuke: 'Cause you were late on releasing chapter 2 of Memento Mori and I'm not going to tolerate that.

MWZ: Ugh. Me sleepy, go away.

Ryuiosuke: If you won't cooperate I know one thing that will get you up. (runs off and comes back with an irate boxer clad Heero Yuy)

Heero: Hnnnn… (whines) Go away. I'm on my day off.

MWZ: Oh my god! Heero wakes up and tackles

Heero: SLEEP!!!

Duo: (wide awake) Let's get this party started!

Heero: How are you guys so awake? TT I want sleep.

MWZ & Duo: Too bad!

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Chapter Two: Proof of Existence

Chang WuFei typed more of his report on the shutting down of more military bases. He looked at the screen and checked the clock on the computer. He hit the Enter key and the computer did its own process to finish and confirm the works finality.

"WuFei, that report on the Leuxis Base, did you finish it already?" Sally Po asked her comrade. WuFei nodded and straightened his paper piles.

"Of course. I wouldn't be late on important documents."

"Well yes, but must you finish them so early that you don't even take your lunch break?"

WuFei looked at Sally. She had enjoyed the company of the young man and true to her word she was helping in healing the wounds in WuFei's heart. WuFei noted that it wasn't love like between and boyfriend and girlfriend, but having someone look out for you and looking out for someone else did leave you with a good feeling. Sally was thrilled when WuFei agreed to join the Preventors. Noin and Zechs had returned from the Mars terraforming early, due to the fact Relena wished to meet her brother more often, rather then have him pretend he was "a dead man".

"He's got nothing else to do. There's no one to shoot or declare war on." Zechs joked from across the room.

"I could declare war on you Merquise." WuFei smirked back.

"Boys will be boys." Noin stated, her hand covering her mouth as she quietly laughed. The phone ringing on WuFei's desk broke the joking mood. WuFei turned to pick up the phone.

"Hello, this is WuFei speaking." WuFei's face seemed to brighten up, signaling to the others it was one of the other Gundam pilots. But the drastic change in his face meant something was wrong. Sally, being the one closest to the desk, strained her ears to try and pick up bits of the conversation. It was rude, but it was also a subconscious thing. After a few minutes WuFei somberly hung up and looked at the other. Lady Une entered the room at the exact moment.

"What's wrong with everyone? Is everything alright?" Lady Une asked in a worried tone.

"Maxwell apparently swears on his life Yuy is alive. He visited Winner this morning and when told the truth, Maxwell left seemingly upset. Winner met with Barton, and apparently Barton's sister had some photo's that Yuy had in his pocket shortly after the Siberia self detonation event." WuFei stated. Lady Une winced at the memory of what she had done that night. She looked back up.

"Why in the world does Duo think Heero is still alive? We saw that explosion with our own eyes." Lady Une replied. Zechs had looked down this time. He recalled the last words he had ever said to his formidable rival.

"_You're too pure and too kind, and I guess that's what gives you the right to live. Watch me Heero, I'm going to live right to the bitter end!"_

"_No Zechs! Stop it!"_

"_Til we meet again Heero."_

After the Mariemia incident, Zechs had no idea of Heero's death until he asked the other pilots just why didn't Wing Zero and its rascal of a pilot show up. Zechs had taken in hard, for being former enemies. However Zechs had explained that Heero had been one of the only people in the world to understand him.

"Yes but Winner said that he doesn't feel like Maxwell's lying either. Maxwell is not a liar, he'd never tarnish that name of his with such an act as lying. Winner did mention he's faxing over the papers Yuy had on him at some point. He said Barton said we should concentrate on getting Maxwell better, but he's also wondering if perhaps anything from Heero's past can help." At these words everyone seemed to become even more interested.

"My, my what a mystery this is turning out to be. Duo's seeing ghosts and Heero's actually got a past." Sally said.

"How exactly are we supposed to find any other information on Heero? We don't even know his real name." WuFei looked at Zechs.

"What do you mean Merquise?" Zechs raised an eyebrow.

"You mean he never told you? Heero wasn't his real name. I recall I asked the same thing to him once, and he had replied 'is that your real name that you're using?' Knowing Heero, he probably already knew Zechs wasn't my real name and figured I should've known that his wasn't his real name as well."

"Figures. I knew his name was too ironic." WuFei commented.

"The new Heero Yuy died obtaining the peace the old Heero Yuy worked for." Noin said as a last input.

Duo parked the car in front of his favorite diner, AJ's. AJ's was a great diner, and Duo loved the Hamburger special. Duo had always enjoyed hearing stories of the 1950's and their diners. Duo got out of his car and walked inside. A young girl was swaying her body around to the music coming out of the jukebox.

"Hi! How many?" a girl asked. Duo looked at her, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Duo." A voice called out. Duo looked over to see Heero sitting at one of the booths.

"Oh uh, I'm here to meet someone." Duo said to the young girl. She nodded and didn't hear Duo mutter under his breath "I guess."

Duo walked over to Heero's booth and sat down. "Where the hell did you go this morning? Quatre thinks you're dead and he thinks I'm crazy!" Heero calmly drank his cup of drink, Duo didn't get a chance to see just what he was drinking.

"Sorry I had matters to take care of. I'm here though aren't I?" Heero said, placing his drink on the table. Duo noticed it was orange juice. He also noticed Heero had a strange necklace on. It was a thin leather strap, with a green shard wrapped by thin wire and held to the leather. It glinted in the sun.

"Man, Quatre doesn't even remember you being there with Zero and firing the cannon at Mariemia's hideout. Hey where did you get the bling bling?" Heero winced at the words.

"Quatre gave it to me."

"Aw, I want one." Duo said. "Anyways why wouldn't Quatre remember talking to you, like when we were in the shuttle breaking into X-18999?"

"He was talking to you." Heero said, eyeing the waitress, she took notice and made her way towards the table.

"Yeah but I did mention you were with me."

"Are you ready to order now?" The waitress asked in a sweet voice.

"Oh I'll have the ham & eggs. Eggs scrambled please, oh and can I have some cheese added to the top of the eggs?" Duo started to order off.

"Of course. Toast or biscuits with gravy?"

"Biscuits with gravy." Heero listened to Duo ordering wondering just where all this food was going. He snapped out of his internal debate of whether a black hole existed in Duo's stomach or not when the waitress finished writing on her pad.

"I'll just have one of your biscuits." Duo scoffed.

"You do not eat enough man, no way am I letting you off just having toast." Duo looked at the waitress. "He'll have what I'm having." The waitress gave a slightly weird look at Duo, but jotted down a "2x" next to his order and closed her pad.

"Ok, I'll be right out with that." She replied with a smile.

"How in the hell am I supposed to eat all of that? I don't have a black hole in my stomach." Heero grumbled.

"Man look at you, you're skin & bones. You know the first time I met you, I wanted to give you a cheeseburger." (1)

"Feed me?" Heero smirked. "That's funny cause the first thing you did to me was shoot me in the arm."

"Hey, you got me back."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah you stole Deathscythe's parts! Or did you forget that quaint little fact?" Duo stated, crossing his arms and sitting back in the booth like he had won a poker game. Heero sighed, and in an almost completely out of personality action, sighed, rolled his eyes and shook his head left & right.

"You still think I stole those parts? You did offer to have my Gundam repaired, I just did the repair work by myself." People sitting around the booth looked at the two boys but dismissed their conversation with a "crazy kids" statement.

"I did offer, but not my Gundam's parts."

"I did you a favor." Heero picked up his glass of orange juice again.

"How in hell was stealing my Gundams parts a favor?" Duo asked, now he was leaning on the table like a child waiting for a story.

"Well.." Heero put the glass back down. "You obviously had plenty of parts to spare for my Gundam just lying around that hangar. Instead of having you go out on a dangerous mission, I decided to take the parts from Deathscythe that way you would be off the missions for at least a day."

"Ok, so assuming this was a nice thing tat you did, you realize now you can't live it down even more." Duo smirked. But the thought came to mind, why would Heero have even done such a thing for someone he had just barely met. "Hey wait!"

"Hn?" Heero looked up.

"Why? Why would you do that for me?"

"You were too nice to me to be a cold heart soldier like me. I didn't want to see you die." Duo stared at him for a while in silence and finally found the words to say.

"Thank you." It was Heero's turn to stare at him. Duo noticed it looked like Heero was a little kid who had just finished listening to his parent's incredible story and was now debating whether it was true or not. "And you're not cold hearted. I mean you did help me after all."

"Two ham & eggs, scrambled with cheese, with biscuits and gravy."

Both boys were slightly startled by the young waitresses sudden appearance. She placed their plates in front of them. Duo had already begun to unwrap his utensils from the napkin. Heero merely stared at the food, trying to figure out just where he should start this battlefield. "Is there anything else you need?" the waitress asked.

"Uh.." Duo was about to say no but wanted to make sure to not send her away if Heero still needed something. However, Heero was still staring at the huge plate of food in front of him. Duo smiled and looked back at the waitress. "Nope, we're good."

With a smile and a bow she walked off. Duo began eating his ham and looked up to see Heero was still not moving. He quickly swallowed the food. "Hey Heero are you alright?"

The Wing pilot looked up, and stared straight at Duo. Duo felt a little worried as Heero didn't blink. It was silent for a few seconds.

"How the FUCK do I eat all of this?" Heero had said with more emphasis then Duo had ever heard come out of the Zero pilot. Duo was glad he had swallowed his food because he suddenly burst into laughter.

"No more surviving on the minimal amount of food required to live for you." Duo said in between fits of laughter. Heero glared at him. "You haven't lived until you've had this!"

"And I probably won't live for long after it either."

----------------

MWZ: Made this a little bit more humorous lol

Heero: Yeah I noticed.

Duo: (still eating ham) Mmmm ham

Heero: you disgust me.

Duo:

MWZ: (1.) This is an inside joke that some of my friends have said upon seeing Heero. They want to feed him a cheeseburger.

Duo: haha

Ryu::looks at Mini-Wing:: Are they always like this?

Mini-Wing; You're such a n00b muse.

Ryu::glare::

MW: R&R!


	4. Mad World

**Memento Mori**

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own the Gundam Wing characters as they belong to Sotsu Sunrise Agency.

MWZ: I'm loving the feedback from you readers, I just gotta toss that one out there. Your words really feed the starving author. I appreciate you guys hanging in there with me; Terra, Meirkai, Mikinyet, & Camillian (Big hugs & kisses to you all lol)

It's really weird writing a serious story again with the boys, and along the way, learning more about them. I really want to address some of your inquiries here and now, but I feel as though I shall have them answered at a later time, feeling rather that as I get the characters to grow, perhaps it'll be more clear, plus I don't want to give any juicy info away hee hee! Again thanks for reading, reviewing and hope to see ya guys on another chapter!

Heero: Yeah better milk em while you can before you screw up and piss em all off.

MWZ: Shush you!

Duo: Yeah man, don't piss of the person with a pen! The pen is mightier then the sword.

Heero: Maybe so, but Zero's foot is stronger then all of that.

Duo: Ohh, that's like playing Paper Rock Scissors with Bulldozer included.

Heero: Bulldozer?

MWZ & Duo: Bulldozer beats everything!

Heero: --; Someone save me.

_**Chapter 4: Mad World**_

His head rested on the table sideways. It's cool surface seemed quite relieving to what had just happened in his mind. It was truly the battle he couldn't win. He had been defeated. He stared at his opponent, debating wether he could in fact deliver the final blow. The calculations in his head said no. His gut instinct said no. At last he had to give into the fact, that he had lost.

There was no way Heero Yuy was going to finish the last biscuit covered in gravy.

"You gonna eat that?"

Heero turned his eyes upwards to see Duo Maxwell, in all his food defeating glory, hover his fork over his biscuit.

"I think I'm going to be sick."

"I'll take that as a no." And with that, Duo stabbed the biscuit and began working it into manageable bites. He did feel triumphant. He'd beaten Heero at something, and something simple no less.

"How do you manage to eat all of that?"

"High metabolism." Sure, you can say that, but it still doesn't account for just where the food goes.

"Oh I like this song!" Heero straightened his head and looked past Duo to see two young women were flipping through the Jukebox's music sheet. Heero heard the familiar sounds of change being dropped into it and then heard the diner's music change.

"Oh hey! What are they playing?" Duo thought out loud.

_All around me are familiar faces_

"I wouldn't know, I don't listen to music." Heero stated flatly. Duo turned to face him.

"It's Mad World. This one sounds like it's the Gary Jules one though."

"I like the Tears for Fears one better. I don't like it when people re-sing another person's song. It' bothers me." Duo raised an eyebrow. Heero's mind was like one huge puzzle. Of all the things that could bother him; like cell phones going off, a crying baby in a movie theater, getting a computer virus...artists remixing another artist's song is what pushed the line? A sudden memory pushed itself to Duo's mind. He closed his eyes and smiled.

"He hated that stuff too." Heero looked like he was remembering something too, his eyes didn't look completely focused like they normally did. Duo heard an odd sound and turned around to see if he could spot what was making it. It sounded like humming, but it was perfectly tuned with the song and didn't sound human.

"Hey Heero you hear that weird so-" Duo caught himself, and noticed just what was making the sound. Heero was humming. Duo stared in odd fascination. Any other person would've been completely normal humming.

'Quatre, Trowa, hell even the Pope humming would be more normal then this!' Duo thought to himself. 'Didn't he say he didn't listen to music? I mean, he did say it was originally Tears for Fears, and he also knows this version by heart, he hasn't missed a beat. Oh God am I getting paranoid? I'm thinking to myself, no conversing with myself! But still, if he said that, that would mean he has some musical history knowledge somewhere in that computer brain of his.'

"Duo!" The voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Duo focused back on Heero and noticed the Prussian eyed boy was staring at him.

"Oh what's up?"

"What are you thinking about?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"You were in such deep thought over there, like you were in another world."

"Oh, well I'm just being weird." Duo shifted a bit in his seat. He was starting to feel uncomfortable about this. But why now? It didn't make sense. Was Quatre's words really starting to get to him? Heero raised an eyebrow at his acknowledgment of the physical symptoms of being uncomfortable.

'Why is he interrogating me?' Again, Duo's own thoughts felt foreign to his own mind. Was he really becoming paranoid? Quatre's words shouldn't bother him so. Heero isn't dead. After all, he just ate a huge breakfast! He can't be dead. Not at all. That's been proven. So why was this feeling of dread coming over him? Why couldn't any of these questions be answered?

"What's got you so uncomfortable all of the sudden?" Heero questioned, still not removing his gaze from Duo's face.

"Why are you being so inquisitive all of the sudden?! Aren't you supposed to be the silent one?" Duo snapped, his eyes widening catching himself again with what he said. He guiltily brought his eyes to meet Heero's, expecting to see hurt.

Heero's expression hadn't changed at all, but his eyes did. Heero always thought he could mask his emotions, but it was Trowa who was good at that. Heero's eyes always gave away his true feeling. Of course, that was assuming you weren't at the business end of his gun and that you were alive long enough to confirm just what is was his eyes were conveying.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." Duo quickly apologized. He internally yelled at himself for thinking that a band-aid of an apology would fix that.

"It's fine." Ok, maybe band-aids did work.

"No it's not just fine. Quatre's got me all freaked out but I don't know why. Why would he claim you're dead and believe it so. I mean you're not dead, you're here in front of me, getting your ass kicked by a gravy covered biscuit." Heero glared at the last sentence. Duo reclined in relaxation. Heero's glare was like being re-initiated into the circle of friendship. He closed his eyes smiling again. "I mean you're not dead are you?"

It was silent again. Duo took it as Heero being his normal silent self. Yet he hadn't been this quiet the whole lunch outing. Duo opened his eye to see just what Heero had pre-occupied himself with.

Heero was gone.

_When people run in circles it's a very, very_

"Hey what the-"

"Your check sir." The waitress had made perfect timing. Duo looked at her and again inwardly cursed. She placed the piece of paper on the table and walked away. Duo scanned the room, checking to see if Heero had gotten up somewhere, but just like the earlier morning, Heero was gone.

"Jerk." Duo grabbed the slip of paper and looked at it. The 2 ham & egg meals and the drinks came out to a total of $23.75. Duo glared at the check. "He could've at least left the cash for his stupid Orange Juice. He owes me."

_Mad world..._

WuFei sat as his desk, unable to focus on another report, and wondering just what was going on with the others. Noin had mentioned she was a bit surprised by WuFei's current plan which was that he would be the one to talk to Duo next. "If more then one of us goes at the same time, he'd take offense most likely. It would be the equivalent of an intervention."

"You care that much about Duo?" Noin had asked. To this WuFei had taken some offense. Was he not supposed to care about him just because the war was over? Of course he'd care about the other pilots, not because he had to, but because he had no one else to care about. He used to only think about defeating those that were in his way and gaining revenge for the loss of his clan & colony, and only looking towards the next stronger opponent and the next fight. But the war had to end, it had to, even to his own dismay. If it hadn't there would be more fights, more wars; more lost homes.

"He's my friend." WuFei stood up and grabbed his Preventor's jacket. He put it on and stared at the screen. "What is Barton going to do?"

"Well, I believe Trowa, Sally and I are going to go through some of the Preventor's video library and see if we can find anything." Noin looked at WuFei. "WuFei, are you sure that Heero is dead?"

Wufei looked at Noin. ""That's strange. Just a few minutes ago you were saying that you agreed with us that Heero was dead. Now you're questioning it."

"Well I mean. What if he is alive, and Duo happens to be the only one who has seen him so far?"

"We saw the explosion. So did you."

"Yes but I've also seen him stand on his Gundam as it self detonated and seen him alive and well a month later." Noin sat down in a nearby chair and crossed her legs.

"If Yuy had survived that explosion, he would not have not shown up during the Mariemia incident."

"But Duo did say that he was traveling with Heero when his shuttle infiltrated X-18999. I didn't see him, but Duo did make references to him being there."

"Well why didn't any of us see him?"

"Well just because we didn't see the Wing Zero there, doesn't mean he wasn't there."

"Next you'll say the three explosions on the mansion were caused by Heero."

"Maybe it was." Noin stated calmly. WuFei slammed his fists on the desk and Noin jumped up a bit in her seat. "WuFei?"

"Damn it woman! Don't you get it?! Yuy is dead. He is dead and gone. Don't you think I want him alive?! I would've loved nothing more then to fight him during that whole affair!" WuFei seemed out of breath, leaning over the desk as he was.

Noin extended her arm, wanting to comfort the angry young man, but could sene that comfort or sympathy was the last thing he wanted at the moment. She pulled her hand back and sat in the silence that was suddenly so thick it could choke the life out of you. Although no words were spoken, it was a silent conversation, and a silent understanding of just had transpired.

"I lost my way for a split second, thinking it was right. Yuy believed in what he was doing, and his strength in just being so driven towards that, it was contagious. I would have loved to fight him, as an enemy to see just what it was like." WuFei had calmed down and straightened himself. "I'm going to go find Duo now, let us hope he hasn't lost his way."

Noin watched him walk out of the office and sighed. She heard footsteps behind her and turned around when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Zechs."

"We should be heading to the video room. I've decided to accompany you as well." The platinum blonde stared with his piercing ice blue eyes at her. Zechs removed his hand and started out of the office as well, heading a different direction then WuFei had gone. Noin stood up and decided to follow.

Quatre had gone back to his office, feeling bad that he hadn't have left Rashid a note stating where he had gone. Quatre smiled at the thought that they were probably running amok around the colony looking for him. He laughed to himself. He sat in his seat and looked at the papers sitting on his desk. They demanded his attention but his mind was really in another place. He looked at the framed photo sitting on his desk again. He recalled the photos that were neatly folded up inside of his pocket. He leaned over to the left as his hand reached into his back right pocket to bring out his wallet. He opened the wallet and pulled out the 2 slips of paper.

Quatre stared at the little girl in the picture. It was a worn photo, and he could barely make out the words next to it. Quatre noticed some ink that wasn't from the newspaper on it and could only make out but a few of those letters. "..RA K. LY..D.S" was what the printed text read. "& MARY" had been written next to it.

Names. The printed text was the name of the little girl most likely. But why was "& MARY" written in?

"Master Quatre, there you are!" Quatre nearly jumped out of his skin by being startled by Rashid.

"Ah!!" Quatre yelped before bringing a hand to his chest as if catching his breath. "Rashid."

"I'm sorry Master Quatre, but we didn't know where you were."

"It's fine." Quatre smiled. "Please Rashid I need a big favor of you. I need you to get a hold of Howard."

"The man from the Peacemillion?"

"Yes. I need you to contact him so I may talk to him. It's very urgent."

"Why certainly Master Quatre!" Rashid turned around and left to begin his task. Quatre inwardly smiled to himself. This could lead to just solving this whole mystery, or at the least give some peace of mind of just how this girl and Heero were related. He could just ask someone who worked with the rebel group Heero belonged to on L1. The base he was raised in was probably still there since dismantling the base was a very hard project on colonies. However he wasn't sure what base, or just what group Heero was with.

"I'm sure some of the rebels must've made it through the war." Quatre said out loud as he turned in his chair. All of the Doctors were dead, so he couldn't turn to any of them to see who went where with what. If they could just find one guy who knew Heero maybe he could shed some light. He felt happy and calm quickly for a second, forgetting the terrible reality of the current situation. Something was reassuring him, not necessarily saying 'Everything's alright' but rather 'You're not alone.' Quatre smiled.

"Yes, we aren't alone."

MWZ: Ok I know this took a bit longer then usual, I'm sorry.

Heero: No she's not.

MWZ: Shut up you. I had to re-write some of the scenes like 10x cause I didn't like it finished lol

Heero: Picky picky picky.

MWZ: R &R! Have a nice day everybody!


	5. Leaving on Red Hill

Memento Mori 

MWZ: Ok yes, I know, I've taken my sweet time getting this out. Me sorry.

Heero: It's cause you're a slacker, nothing more.

MWZ: No idiot, it's cause I've been sick.

Heero: Sick in the head.

MWZ: OH SHUT UP!!! KILL YOU!!  
Heero: Yeah, yeah.

Duo: Heh, even Heero gets bored with people threatening him.

MWZ: Not like he ever carries out his threats…

Heero: I can't kill her now! She's promoting peace!

MWZ & Duo: Excuses, excuses.

Heero: Oh go suck a lemon! (leaves)

Duo: mm Lemony goodness.

MWZ: That sounds so wrong.

Duo: Only cause you think that way.

MWZ: Oh yes, and to address my spacing issues. Trust me, I try to format these pages on FFN and when they're on my computer, they're just fine. It's just once they go on the file manager, they get all screwed up, and even though I edit them live on FFN, the changes don't stick. So I'll have to manually space the changes from character to character myself cause the whole document is evil

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing or any of its characters. If I did I'd be filthy rich and would not have to worry about rising tuition fees at CSU.

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Chapter Five: Leaving on Red Hill

The streets had become relatively calm now, with everyone done with their lunch hour break, the traffic seemed to lessen. The air was still heavy with the smell of exhaust, and made it quite an unpleasant smell to the driver of the open windowed Mustang that was currently making its way back to the scrap yard.

"The technology to build a Gundam but still no alternative fuel for vehicles." Duo mumbled to himself, his eyes leveling with the slow moving semi in front of him. Duo looked at his glove box and then remembered he hadn't even looked at the clipboard of clients he had to look at.

Mobile suit scrap cluttered outer space, and the scrap yard had no shortage of it. However, all mobile suit metals were monitored; trash or not. Background checks had to be thorough to ensure that someone wasn't building or stashing away for their own personal army. Duo had found all sorts of parts in space, even scraps of Gundanium from their various battles. That was never re-sold however. One it was deemed against the law by the Preventors, and two, Duo couldn't stomach someone getting a piece of Deathscythe or any of the Gundams.

"They'd sell it on e-bay I just know it." Duo smirked at the thought, wondering just how much a piece would go for.

The black leather strapped green shard fell, and started to swing like a pendulum.

"What the-" Duo snapped out of his strange thought to the sound of a car horn honking behind him. The light was green and the diesel had already fully crossed the intersection. "Shit."

Duo quickly pressed the gas and shifted gears. He personally yelled at himself, which seemed to be happening a lot lately. "I really need to stop zoning out at intersections."

A few minutes later, Duo pulled into the parking lot for the scrap yard. He put the car in park and reached for the clipboard in the glove box. He pulled it out and got out of the car. Hilde was waiting by the door. Duo inwardly sighed, praying she wouldn't bring up the whole 'Dead Heero' debate.

"Hey Duo. You feeling better?"

Better? That was a trick question. He felt fine all along, how could he feel better if he already felt fine? "Uh, I guess." Duo answered, starting to squeeze sideways past her to get to the doorway.

"Well, did you manage to look over the clipboard or did you just enjoy lunch?" Hilde asked, shifting her weight to the other leg. Duo stopped mid-step.

"Actually…I completely forgot about that until 5 minutes ago." Duo rubbed the back of his head. He hated getting into this situation. Part of him wanted to go back to the Heero subject instead of being his own subject.

"Duo! How are we supposed to ship these out on time if you constantly forget to look at the clients?"

"You take things too seriously Hilde. I promise I'll look at them." Duo walked over to the couch and tossed the clipboard on one of the random pillows scattered about. He then flipped himself over the back of the couch and sprawled himself out on the couch. Hilde sighed loudly and Duo could tell by her footsteps she headed towards her room.

The comfort of the pillows and couch drew Duo into the halfway sleep state. He turned to face the television, looking at it but not really watching it. The faces and figures seemed almost silent before everything went blurry.

"Oh and Duo I'm.." Hilde walked back; she was brushing her hair with a black brush. She looked over to Duo who was asleep. Duo's rhythmic breathing was evidence to this fact. Hilde smiled and then turned away, hiding her sad smile.

As she turned to head back to her room, she passed Duo's along the way. She stopped to stare at it for a second. Contrary to what some people thought of Duo, his room was very tidy, aside from his computer desk. The monitor's base was hidden amongst various scraps of paper, each with various numbers and tidbits of information written on them. She had always been very curious about just what the numbers and letters meant to the braided boy, but decided it was best she didn't snoop around. She treasured her friendship with Duo, and would rather not destroy that trust by snooping around his stuff. Duo probably wouldn't care if she asked about them, but she was too shy for that.

One thing that caught her eye was some photos that were taped to Duo's computer tower. It was a picture of Heero and Duo dressed in basketball jerseys. Hilde always thought it was a humorous picture and if Heero was still alive, she knew he'd probably kill Duo for having it. In the picture Duo knew there was a camera present, but Heero was busy playing with the basketball actually having fun.

Duo didn't have many photos of the pilots since there wasn't much time during the war to take pictures. However of his stash, they were mostly of Heero. Hilde felt a tinge of jealousy come over her.

She had always hoped that maybe something would become of her friendship with Duo, but Duo hadn't felt the same way about her. Although it had taken awhile to get over, she decided that being friends with Duo was better then nothing. Although she was going out on a date tonight, she still wished it was Duo that was meeting her. Duo's lack of interest in her was understandable, after finally having some time to himself to sit back and relax; he just wasn't interested in getting girlfriend yet.

Hilde stared at the ground, now feeling guilty for being jealous of Heero for being friends with Duo. She shook her head and walked inside of her room, shutting the door with a click.

* * *

Trowa, Noin, Sally and Zechs had made themselves comfortable as they watched the last video recording they had on the Libra's destruction. They had watched it over and over for at least five times. They had become subliminal teams; Noin and Sally pointing out ways that perhaps Heero had lived, and Trowa and Zechs pointing out flaws in their thoughts. 

"Well, you survived although you blew up one of Libra's power generators." Noin pointed out to Zechs.

"Yes but I wasn't fighting the gravitational pull of Earth and it's atmosphere."

"Couldn't Wing Zero make atmospheric re-entry?" Sally inquired.

"Yes, but it would've had to been in that flight mode." Trowa replied.

"Trowa's right. Wing Zero was designed with the ability to enter and exit the Earth's atmosphere. However, the Bird mode purposely covered the parts of the Gundam that needed extra resistance to the extreme temperatures. Without being in bird mode, Heero wouldn't have made it."

Noin watched the screen as Zero fired its cannon at the hunk of Libra and the explosion that followed. A memory surfaced in her mind.

"At the Presidential Residence, the estate itself was hidden underground. 8 Gates of power if I'm not mistaken." Noin recalled. Trowa looked at her with his emerald eyes lit up with curiosity.

"Yes. Why do you bring that up?"

'Well, the explosion according to the Barton Foundation members who held out within. Was accurate to 1/100th of a unit." Zechs caught onto where Noin was going with this.

"Noin, those explosions came from bombs set up in the gates, not an invisible Wing Zero."

"How could it have been bomb set up? We found no trace of bombs."

"If it was Wing Zero, I doubt Une would've survived getting into the estate." Trowa stopped to think about it. Just how did Lady Une get inside there anyways? She may have gotten into the residence, but how could another person have done that, without being seen? Much less leave no trace of their presence. Wait, was he starting to contemplate Heero's existence?

"Well we do know that Lady Une didn't set up those explosives." Sally finally put her thoughts into it.

"It couldn't have been explosions, those gates had circular dents in them that had no trace of explosive residue. Also how could someone set up bombs on 8 gates? There were 8 gates, each at least 5 feet thick with Titanium." Noin added in, her cell phone started ringing. Noin reached downwards and answered it. "Hello, Noin here."

Trowa stared at the phone, trying to decipher by Noin's tone just who was on the other line. Noin just nodded her head and replied, "Yes, okay then." Noin hung up.

"That was Relena's secretary." At this Zechs looked at Noin directly.

"What'd she say?"

"Relena is going to be coming here sometime soon."

"This will be amusing." Trowa said as he closed his eyes in thought.

* * *

Duo woke up, but hadn't opened his eyes yet. He was slowly shaking off the sleep weight on his body. Duo heard an odd noise and didn't recognize it. He opened his eyes slowly, and looked at the clock. It took a few seconds before his eyes adjusted and he could read the time. It was 6:15 PM. (1)

"Shit. Slept longer then I thought." Duo sat up. The clipboard was lying on the table now. Duo reached over to grab it, and noticed the table was shiny and clean. He noticed it had the strong scent of orange dust cleaner as well. Duo relaxed as he noticed the sound was the sound of dishes being watched. Duo looked around and noticed the floor had been vacuumed, the house dusted and cleaned.

"Hey, the place looks nice Hilde!" Duo said out loud. "You should've woken me up. I would've helped you know!"

"I don't need your help." A gruff, un-Hilde-like voice replied. Duo turned so fast that his head hurt, feeling like he got up too fast. Standing in the kitchen doorway was Heero. The darkness of the living room gave Heero an eerie appearance. The light from the kitchen lit up around Heero. Most of Heero's features were hidden in the darkness of the living room, except for his eyes and the gem around his neck.

"Whoa shit! What the hell are you doing here Heero?!" Duo exclaimed.

"Cleaning up. What does it look like?"

"Well, where's Hilde?"

"She went out." Duo's head was hurting bad again. Heero must've noticed because he walked closer to Duo.

"Lay back down. I didn't wake you up because you were asleep." Heero's tone was serious but also soft.

"Hey, where the hell did you go at lunch today?" Heero was silent. Duo figured he was busy cleaning again. "You owe me money for your orange juice, don't think I'll forget." Duo said jokingly.

Duo rested his head on the pillow and reached over to the clipboard. He grabbed it and looked at it. The first name was Bertha Carter. Just as Duo was about to get up, the doorbell rang. He looked to see if Heero was nearby to answer it. Duo mentally slapped himself.

"Sheesh he did just clean the place. I can answer the door." Duo got up and headed towards the door. He looked through the view hole first. Last thing he needed was a door-to-door salesman at the moment. Duo raised an eyebrow when he saw who it was. He quickly opened the door.

"WuFei, hey buddy! How's it goin'?" Duo warmly greeted the former Altron pilot. Duo looked up and blinked a few times before looking back at WuFei. "Ehh, just what are you doing here this late anyways?"

"I'm here to help." Duo smiled. He opened his door wide for WuFei to see.

"Well, you're welcome to help, but Heero's already cleaned house. Hey wait!" Duo glared. "What was my place so dirty that you all decided to come and help?"

WuFei looked inside the building and in fact it was clean. WuFei looked at Duo. "Well, may I still come in? It's rather cold." Duo nodded.

"Of course! Like I'd let you stay out there and freeze." Duo walked back inside, holding the door open for WuFei. Once WuFei stepped in he closed the door. "Hey Heero! WuFei is here!"

WuFei watched as Duo called out through the house, almost like he would shout and Heero would just appear around the hallway. WuFei watched for a few seconds, part of him hoping Heero would appear. Acting like nothing was wrong a second ago outside had bothered WuFei. But he didn't want to anger or confront Duo outside. That would just result in Duo shutting the door on his face.

"Hey Heero, hurry up will ya?!" Duo yelled again. WuFei inwardly sighed.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

MWZ: I'm so, so, so, sorry this chapter took so long to get out. I was hoping to get further then this during my Spring Break. However I became very sick and once I felt better, I began to write this the Sunday before last. I got the first 2 pages done, and then my oldest dog Tasha died of old age. Needless to say I wasn't in the mood to write and that's why this chapter has taken so long. Also as I was trying to upload this chapter FFN, wasn't allowing me due to errors. Go figure.

Hopefully I didn't lose any of you during this long drought of a chapter, it won't be so long lacking next time. Again I'm sorry. And to all of those of you who review. I 3 ya!

(1) This is kind of poking fun at a freak thing that happens to me. Everyday I check the clock at the time, it's the same time every day, 6:15. Sometimes its 3:15, 4:15, etc., but 6:15 freaks me out the most because its similar to my birthdate 6/15. lol ahh randomness.


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